Killing Eve Review: End of Game (Season 3 Episode 6)
Villanelle has begun to unravel with Killing Eve Season 3 Episode 6, “End of Game,” placing her in a position of extreme vulnerability with few allies left to count on.
What was once billed as a show with two leads has become more of an ensemble this season, and “End of Game” devotes considerable time to Carolyn and Konstantin’s respective struggles with parenthood.
It’s not easy to protect a child while simultaneously working for intelligence agencies and international shadow organizations. Konstantin has a plan to whisk his daughter off to safety, but discovers that it’s already too late.
Villanelle’s influence has rubbed off on Irina, prompting her to attempt the murder of her stepfather.
The look of glee on her face as she drives over his body while meeting Konstantin’s gaze is chilling. She expects him to be proud of her, but instead, he is horrified — not just by her actions, but by his own failure to protect her from the skewed morality of his professional life.
It’s concise and effective storytelling, deploying a small handful of scenes to great emotional effect.
The Geraldine plot, on the other hand, remains a bit of a head-scratcher. Her presence is barely tolerable for Carolyn, and perhaps even less so for the viewer. Every conversation between the two characters feels like a rehash of the previous one, adding nothing to either the overall plot or Carolyn’s personal development.
Thankfully, those scenes are the only real stumble in an otherwise strong episode.
The biggest development is, of course, the way Villanelle seems to be falling apart after murdering her mother.
Her eyes are unfocused, her expression constantly hovering somewhere between numbness and panic. She is desperate for every scrap of affection from Konstantin and Dasha, the only parental figures she has left, even though both of them have treated her as a tool to be used rather than a human being.
Konstantin’s affection for her seems genuine, but he’s unlikely to maintain a relationship with her after seeing the impact she’s had on Irina.
After years of thriving in her job, Villanelle has come to the painful realization that it isn’t enough to be good at what she does. She wants to be treated like a person, not a toy for the wicked and the wealthy. She wants to be comforted. She wants to be loved.
It’s fascinating to watch Villanelle and Eve move forward on opposite trajectories.
While Villanelle has begun to crave connection and a sense of belonging after years of shamelessly violent behavior, Eve has let go of her all emotional ties and become more self-assured and unapologetic.
As Bear points out, the amount of loss that Eve has suffered to this point in the series should be massively traumatic, yet somehow she has emerged steadier and more tenacious than ever before.
Eve’s screen time is sparse in this episode, but Sandra Oh makes excellent use of what she’s given to work with. When she walks up on Dasha in the bowling alley, she is calm and poised in the presence of a deadly assassin.
Villanelle uses costuming and perfume to make herself feel powerful, whereas Eve exudes it in subtler ways: the impassivity of her expression, the cockiness of turning away after her bowling throw because she already knows it will be a strike, the audacity of flying to Barcelona to confront Dasha in the first place.
Eve’s self-confidence has often felt unearned and foolish in the past, but the way she owns her behavior this season feels just the opposite: empowering and mildly frightening.
On Killing Eve Season 2 Episode 8, “You’re Mine,” she told Villanelle, “I’m like you now. I’m not afraid of anything.”
That statement finally feels true, in the sense that Eve no longer has a reason to back down from anything or anyone. She’s tenacious, she’s smarter than people give her credit for, and she has nothing left to lose.
With the exception of the Geraldine subplot, each scene in “End of Game” feels purposeful and consequential.
The episode does an excellent job of building tension through character development, putting each member of the ensemble on a crash course toward one another as the season moves closer to its endgame.
What did you think of this episode of Killing Eve? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Killing Eve airs Sunday at 9/8c on BBC America and AMC.
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Ariel Udel
Ariel fell in love with storytelling on the night Flight 815 crashed on a mysterious island, and has been blogging about television ever since. She has an affinity for messy female anti-heroes and an enduring love of Battlestar Galactica, Xena: Warrior Princess, Lost, and Halt and Catch Fire.